A brief introduction and a bit of history...

Over the summer I had one of the worst cell phone experiences in my entire life. I had a Samsung Omnia running Windows BLOWble. All coitus references aside, this phone/operating ssytem was the biggest hunk of crap I have ever used. So naturally, I was thankful when my friend accidentally dropped it into some mud and ruined it. For the rest of the summer, I was stuck using my dad's Samsung SCH A850 (I am on Verizon), which I considered to be a major step up from the Omnia (look up the phone and you will see the irony).

Several months later, my birthday has rolled around and I think i am in the market for a new phone. Being on Verizon, I have been optimistically waiting for the Nexus One to trickle into Verizon stores, but no luck yet. I'm getting a little impatient. So, I think I am going to take the plunge and get a Motorola Droid. I also hope to utilize the offer Verizon has and claim a free Droid Eris for my dad.

All of that being said, I would like to point out that I am not a total n00b. I've built computers, put a NES emulator on just about anything I can get get my hands on, and have had a lot of experience with putting cooked ROMS on my WinBlow phone. However, when it comes to Android, I am about as skilled a user as your grandmothers.

No, not really, (well, kind of), So i'm going to be looking to all of you for help and guidance along this Android journey.

When I get the Droid sometime this week, I will probably root it. Can somebody explain to me technically what rooting is? I know that it enables you to put non licensed applications on your android device. What else can I do with a rooted device? I read a guide on Engadget that was a very simple how-to guide to root a Droid, and I think it said that i can enable multitouch. Can ya'll elaborate? I don't think I will root my dad's Droid Eris, for the sake of not interrupting his bonding with Android.

Where is everything stored on the Droid? Will I be storing apps in the included SD card or do they get stored on the ROM (i dont think so..) or on the RAM? If so, will having more apps on my device slow down the phone?

Is there a file browser? Is there a decent music player?

Is there a way to put cracked apps on it? (Forgive me, but after having a jailbroken iPod Touch for three years, i'm used to not paying for applications ) That habit could change now, because i would like to support Android.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this introduction. l'm sure this is a given, but all help is greatly appreciated, especially as I begin my android journey.

Over the summer I had one of the worst cell phone experiences in my entire life. I had a Samsung Omnia running Windows BLOWble. All coitus references aside, this phone/operating ssytem was the biggest hunk of crap I have ever used. So naturally, I was thankful when my friend accidentally dropped it into some mud and ruined it. For the rest of the summer, I was stuck using my dad's Samsung SCH A850 (I am on Verizon), which I considered to be a major step up from the Omnia (look up the phone and you will see the irony).

Several months later, my birthday has rolled around and I think i am in the market for a new phone. Being on Verizon, I have been optimistically waiting for the Nexus One to trickle into Verizon stores, but no luck yet. I'm getting a little impatient. So, I think I am going to take the plunge and get a Motorola Droid. I also hope to utilize the offer Verizon has and claim a free Droid Eris for my dad.

All of that being said, I would like to point out that I am not a total n00b. I've built computers, put a NES emulator on just about anything I can get get my hands on, and have had a lot of experience with putting cooked ROMS on my WinBlow phone. However, when it comes to Android, I am about as skilled a user as your grandmothers.

No, not really, (well, kind of), So i'm going to be looking to all of you for help and guidance along this Android journey.

When I get the Droid sometime this week, I will probably root it. Can somebody explain to me technically what rooting is? I know that it enables you to put non licensed applications on your android device. What else can I do with a rooted device? I read a guide on Engadget that was a very simple how-to guide to root a Droid, and I think it said that i can enable multitouch. Can ya'll elaborate? I don't think I will root my dad's Droid Eris, for the sake of not interrupting his bonding with Android.

Where is everything stored on the Droid? Will I be storing apps in the included SD card or do they get stored on the ROM (i dont think so..) or on the RAM? If so, will having more apps on my device slow down the phone?

Is there a file browser? Is there a decent music player?

Is there a way to put cracked apps on it? (Forgive me, but after having a jailbroken iPod Touch for three years, i'm used to not paying for applications ) That habit could change now, because i would like to support Android.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this introduction. l'm sure this is a given, but all help is greatly appreciated, especially as I begin my android journey.

Change of plans- went to the store today and I decided that I didn't need the physical keyboard on the Droid, so I'm going with the Droid Eris because the rep told me that theyre rolling out a 2.0 update for it in q1.

this is a pretty noobish question, but how / why do I root it? Will i need to root it to put third party applications such as a file manager on it?